Tseung Kwan O

Tseung Kwan O (also called Junk Bay) is a bay in Sai Kung District, New Territories, Hong Kong, China. In the northern tip of the bay lies the Tseung Kwan O Village.

The Tseung Kwan O New Town, one of the nine new towns in Hong Kong, was mainly built on reclaimed land in the northern half of the bay.

Name

In Cantonese, "Tseung Kwan" (將軍) means the "General" of an army, and "O" (澳) means "bay". Therefore, "Tseung Kwan O" literally means "General's Bay".

The exact origin of the name Tseung Kwan O is unknown, but it is said to be named in honour of a Ming Dynasty general who visited Tseung Kwan O at some point. Another theory is that the name was chosen in the 17th century, when naval battles were fought against pirates from Japan at Tseung Kwan O. Yet another theory is that the pronunciation of "將軍" can sound like "Junk Wan" to the ears of English speakers; "wan" is a Chinese word for "bay".

The English name "Junk Bay" was said to be derived from the existence of junks in the bay. The Fat Tong Chau (Junk Island) is in the southeastern part of the bay.

History and geography

The bay is near the eastern mouth of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour.

Before new town development, the area around the bay was occupied by a number of fishing towns and villages. The Tseung Kwan O Village in the northern tip of the bay is about 600 years old. Other towns and villages include Rennie's Mill, Hang Hau and Yau Yu Wan. Rennie's Mill was where Kuomintang loyalists were settled following the end of the Chinese civil war, and Hang Hau had a ship building industry.

The Hong Kong Government had been interested in developing a new town at Hang Hau because of its proximity to the urban area. The project was postponed for a long time owing to the extensive scale of reclamation in the bay, which is rather deep. It finally started under the name of Tseung Kwan O.

Photo gallery

ee also

* Tseung Kwan O (MTR)
* List of bays in Hong Kong

External links

* [http://tkoweb.info Website on history and other information of Tseung Kwan O - Chinese Version only]